When Your Brain Thinks It Is Holiday Season But Your Calendar Disagrees
This week I had one of those moments that only seems to happen in December. I opened my calendar, glanced at a date, and confidently arranged my entire morning around what I believed was happening that day. Then I looked again, and there it was. I was off by a full twenty-four hours.
Not the wrong week. Not the wrong time. The wrong day.
I stared at the screen for a few seconds before I started to laugh. It made perfect sense. I have been back and forth between New Jersey and Virginia three times in three weeks. I am preparing for the December 11 referrals workshop. I am planning ahead for January’s business course. I am helping support my family. It is a lot of switching. A lot of planning. A lot of emotional bandwidth.
And underneath all of that, my brain has quietly decided that it should already be on holiday time. My nervous system feels the pull of the season even though my calendar tells a very different story. It is that feeling of almost there but not quite. Ready for rest but not released yet.
This mismatch creates the perfect recipe for executive function slip.
Not a failure. Not a lack of motivation. Simply a nervous system that is trying to conserve energy while life continues at full speed.
As I corrected my calendar and refocused my plans, I realized something important. This is the same moment so many students experience right now. Their brains do not wait for the official start of winter break. Their internal clock begins the countdown early. Their attention drifts. Their planning gets fuzzier. Their tolerance becomes thinner. Even the most capable students begin to feel the strain.
I see it every year. December quietly stretches the prefrontal cortex. Students are ending units, preparing for assessments, juggling concerts and sports and family plans, and trying to stay regulated in classrooms that feel a little more restless each day. Their brains are doing the same thing mine did this morning. They are trying to wind down while still being asked to stay fully engaged.
When students begin to lose track of time, need more reminders, or feel overwhelmed by tasks that were easy in October, it is not a sign that they have stopped trying. It is a sign that their cognitive energy is running low. They are navigating that same gap between what the nervous system wants and what the environment requires.
This is why December is the month for compassion, pacing, and gentle scaffolding.
Here are a few reminders that help educators during this season.
• Planning and organization dip when routine changes
• Emotional regulation becomes harder when anticipation rises
• Attention slips when the brain is tired from switching contexts
• Students need more clarity and fewer assumptions in December
• Check-ins matter more than checklists this month
None of this means we lower expectations. It means we adjust how we support students in meeting them. A little structure. A little space. A little acknowledgment that this time of year pulls on everyone’s executive functions.
As adults we forget that we are also living inside the same invisible tension. My calendar mix-up was not a mistake. It was information. A signal that my system is ready for rest even though my schedule has a few more big tasks before the year closes.
Your system may be sending the same signals. If you notice yourself double checking dates, rereading emails, or feeling like your brain is a few steps ahead of the calendar, take a moment to pause. You are not behind. You are human. And you are navigating a season that requires more emotional and cognitive energy than most.
Our students are too.
So as we move through these next few weeks, may we offer ourselves and our learners a little more grace. A little more clarity. A little more patience with tired prefrontal cortices doing their very best.
December invites us to slow down, even while the world speeds up.
And sometimes the most powerful support we can offer is to notice that pull and respond with compassion.
